Peak or visored caps are worn by golfers, baseball players, house painters, construction workers, and recreational endeavors.
The hats or caps have a generally crown or dome shaped shell which fits over the upper portion of the head. The lower edge of the shell extends down close to the top of the ears. A visor or bill attached to the shell's lower edge extends forward normally about one and one half to five and one-half inches, with three inches about average. The visor or bill usually has a width of about six to eight inches, with seven inches about average. The cap shell is usually made of cloth or plastic, which can be insulated for warmth, or partially or wholly of an open mesh material for wear in warm climates where ventilation is desirable. In case of the plastic hat for overhead or motorized protection, the visor is often made of one or more layers of cloth sewn together, with or without an internal sheet of cardboard, plastics or other stiffening material.
The purpose of the visor is to protect the wearers face against rain, snow, wind and sunlight, which could cause poor vision or sunburn and harm to the eyes. While the normal visor provides adequate protection against the described elements, there are times when the vision or a worker may be blocked by the visor, such as when one is working on objects that are overhead. Similarly, in narrow corridors or tight quarters, the standard length visor may strike the walls or other protruding objects. The present invention overcomes these difficulties because the fixed portion of the visor is approximately one-half the length of a standard visor so that when the extendible visor is retracted, vision and working space are no longer affected. The moveable visor can be made of different color see through plastics or solid color plastics or of any hard material comparable. The shell is molded or constructed in a permanent curve and the visor is produced flat, when the visor is inserted into the shell there is a natural induced bind or friction that holds the visor at any extension whether it is half or fully extracted from the closed position.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,610,745 discloses a cap with a permanent visor having an extendable visor in a pocket between two adjacent layers forming a permanent visor. Flexible strings or cords stop forward movement but there is no means to hold the visor extended or in the out position. There is a need for an improved hat for working overhead with the means to hold the extension at any position.